Chess rules for chess beginners

INITIAL POSITION

You see the initial position . Each side has 1 King, 1 Queen, 2 Rooks, 2 Bishops, 2 Knights and 8 pawns. The chessboard must be placed between the players in such a way that the near corner square to the right of the player is white. White commences the game. Your aim is to checkmate ( capture ) your opponent's King.

CHECKMATE

After you threat your opponent's king , if your opponent can't find any appropriate square to escape his king or can't capture the attacking piece or place another piece between his king and the attacker , he is checkmated.

CAPTURE

When you move your piece properly to a square occupied by an opponent's piece , you capture this piece . Captured piece is now out of the chessboard.

The KING

The most important chess piece is the king because if your king is captured , you lose the game.

The king can move one square in any direction that is not attacked by an opponent’s piece. If it is attacked by an opponent’s piece , it is in check.

Castling

The king has a special move done with the rook. It is called castling. For the short and long castling see castling page.

The QUEEN

The Queen can move any number of squares horizontally, vertically, or diagonally . It can't move over the pieces.

The ROOK

The Rook can move any number of squares horizontally or vertically . It can't move over the pieces.

The BISHOP

The Bishop can move any number of squares diagonally . It can't jump over the pieces.

The KNIGHT

The Knight's move is as a letter "L" .
1- It moves two squares horizontally and one square ahead or backward
2- It moves two squares vertically and one square left or right.
Only the Knight can jump over the other pieces.

The PAWN

The pawn always moves ahead. It moves one square but every pawn has right to move 2 squares ahead if it is first move .
The pawn captures diagonally , but only 1 square ahead.

Pawn promotion :

If a pawn reaches the rank furthest at the opponent side , it is promoted to
Queen ,Rook, Knight or Bishop . It cannot become a King or a pawn .

En passant

The pawn has a special move : en passant. For a detailed explanation click for en passant page.

The DRAWN

The player has no legal move to do while his king is not in check. This is stalemate and the game is drawn.

Other conditions for the drawn:
- Both of the player can not checkmate the opponent's king
- Players agree on the drawn during the game.
- Any identical position is about to appear or has appeared on the chessboard at least three times.
- If each player has made the last 50 consecutive moves without the movement of any pawn and without the capture of any piece.

A player who draws his game scores 1/2 point. A player who wins scores 1 point, a player who loses has 0 point.

Touched pieces

This rule is using during the tournaments matches. You must move with the first piece you touched if possible. If it is not possible you may make any move you want.
You must capture the first piece you touched. If it is not possible you may make any move you want.

Chess notation

You can write the chess moves and describe the play by using algebraic chess notation . See chess notation page

Chess openings

There are different starting moves. These are very deeply analyzed and played by the chess grandmasters. A lot of variations are created. These moves are called chess openings. In order to be a good player you should learn at least some of these openings. Check them on chess openings page.